


Mine

by Prairiefire



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-31
Updated: 2012-10-30
Packaged: 2017-11-17 10:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/550593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prairiefire/pseuds/Prairiefire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A skilled hunter and tracker, Barricade always finds what he is looking for. Too bad for Nina, he's quite possessive too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mine

Bored. Bored. Bored. Barricade was beyond bored. Not only that but he was angry. Angry at being stuck on this dirtball of a planet. Angry that Starscream had abandoned him. Owing him no allegiance, Barricade had left his post. Spying on Autobots was boring, never mind dangerous. The sole Decepticon on the planet, he would have stood no chance if he was found. So he left, to Pit with Starscream and his orders.

To cover his aft if Starscream ever came looking for him, unlikely though it was, he did stay in the same state. Still, he had to deal with the boredom. He had nothing at all to do and it was grating on his processors. A mech of science, he could feel them rusting for lack of use.

In the months following the disaster of Mission City as he recovered from his injuries, he created himself a game to stave off the boredom. It wasn't anything like the strategy or racing games of Cybertron, but it would do until he figured out something better. He just had to refrain from killing too many humans so he wouldn't attract too much attention. It was a shame but played right just instilling terror and panic could be enough to take the edge off his circuits and keep him from a boredom related deactivation. Spook-the-human could be fun even if it didn't result in much of a chase.

Barricade's current favorite prey, a young female, dashed into one of the dark alleys lining the street. Always so jumpy, she would take off at the first sight of him. He had modified his original game to see how close he could get before she spotted him. Her routes of escape would lead all over the city core, becoming a distracting way to map the area.

It had been two weeks since he had first noticed her. Flighty thing that she was she apparently knew the city well. Ducking into alleys was her first evasive maneuver, though it didn't work that well for her when his vehicle form could easily follow. Then came the blocked or gated alleys where she would hop over the fence and disappear before he could turn around and find the exit. Narrow alleys came next and again she had a temporary advantage. She also had no problem doubling back once Barricade had left to find another way around the blockade.

This all meant little to Barricade. He was a hunter and the more challenging the hunt the more rewarding it was. She would never be able to trick him twice on the same route. When he knew he couldn't follow her path directly he would speed ahead and cut her off. She had tried this only once and had quickly been cornered.

For two weeks he hunted her like a turbo fox, rooting her out of whatever shelter she had found with a blip of his siren and a flash of his lights. She would grab her bag and run like her life depended on it. He would chase her until he had her cornered, making sure she knew that she was caught, that she was at his mercy.

Then, when she was scared enough in his opinion he would spin around and peel out to find another hunt.

Why he kept coming after her he didn't know. As long as she remained entertaining he did not care. She made for an interesting diversion but he could flush any of the squishy pests around him into doing that. Perhaps because it continued to be the only fun he got and this human always seemed to be around. She appeared to be about the same age as the boy, ladiesman217, and what the insects would call "homeless."

Barricade's engine revved harshly with scorn at the idea. There was no way a human could understand what it was to be homeless when they were overrunning this whole planet.

Tonight was different though. He had not started the chase with his little organic turbo fox. In truth, he hadn't even been looking for her. The human had run in front of him, not seeing his form or any of the other cars in the street. He stayed stopped where he was, sensors tuned to her retreating form despite the protestations of the cars behind him. There was a squeal from another siren as a Las Vegas PD squad car roared out of the alley opposite the one the girl had vanished into.

Not liking this one bit, Barricade turned to follow. He liked chasing this particular human around. If the human law enforcers caught her it was likely that he would lose on any future chances to torment and tease her. It would most certainly not do for these insignificant bugs to take away his entertainment.

With his running lights off he rolled down the alley behind the other cruiser. He made sure to follow far enough back that he wouldn't be noticed in a quick glance. The girl kept running from the other car, dodging the trash littered on the ground. Barricade followed unseen as she bolted out of the alley and across another street. She narrowly missed an early end on the front grill of a large white pick up. The driver, none to happy with the sudden stop, expressed his displeasure with a long blast from the horn. It stopped when the black and white cruiser with flashing lights streaked past.

As the girl vanished down another backway Barricade pulled onto the street. Deciding it was time to get ahead of the game he sped past the entrance and headed to where this particular passage emptied. He planned to cut the girl off and hopefully make the humans back off his property.

As he sat and waited for the girl to reach him he was silent, listening to the oncoming siren. He heard her pounding feet a few moments later, the squad car still following. The girl skidded to a stop before him, terror plain on her face as her chest heaved. She was surrounded and for whatever reason did not want to deal with the police. Her wide eyes stared straight into his holoform's sunglasses until the other car pulled up behind her. All this while Barricade sat motionless, waiting to see what would happen next.

The girl whipped around and started to back away from the approaching car, she angled herself to slide around his passenger side. The pursuit car skidded to a stop twenty feet away and cut the siren. As the driver got out the girl backed closer to Barricade's passenger door.

"Nina, get back here," the officer yelled to the runaway. "Don't let her get away," he added to the other police car in the alley.

The girl, who had been pathetically trying to use him as a hiding place, gasped and backed away from him when she realized he was also a police car. Barricade snickered to himself and opened his passenger door. He had no intention of letting her get away, but he wasn't about to give her up to this trespassing fleshling.

When the girl saw the door open she stumbled away and fell on her backside. She stared into the leather bound interior of the Saleen, frozen where she had fallen. Barricade kept a sensor on her, ready for the chase again if she bolted. The cop walked confidently toward them but faltered when he saw the door swing open which obscured his view of the girl.

Fists clenched and face flushed with rage as the cop took another step forward. "Don't you dare, she's mine!" The shout rang out in the alley though it did not draw any attention from the surrounding buildings.

Barricade's holoform stared back at the advancing officer, unimpressed by the puny display of temper. Barricade snorted in disgust and turned his imitation driver to the girl, the first time it had moved for either human to see. With a blank face hidden by reflective sunglasses and an emotionless voice he addressed her.

"Come with me if you want to live."

The girl swallowed hard and shifted her gaze to the other human who stood five feet in front of her tormenter's push bar. He took one more step towards them and she bolted for the open door. Scared as she was she never noticed the door snap shut on its own behind her.

"This isn't your business," the irate cop yelled. "Give her to me!" He had reached Barricade's bumper and slammed a fist onto the black hood to accentuate his demand.

Barricade, in response to the invasion of his space, revved his engine hard and spun his tires in a threat to run down the insolent fleshbag. Bad enough one sat inside him, but to have one strike him was too much. He let go of his brakes and shoved the man over hard.

The aggressive attitude immediately left the prostrate man. Point made, Barricade threw himself in reverse and floored it backwards out of the alley. Dazed, the other cop watched from where he had fallen as the other cruiser just missed another car as it backed onto the road. Shock turned to indignation as the interloping car pulled out of view. He sprang up from where he landed and sprinted back to his own car.

The cop slammed himself into the driver's seat and followed the other car. As he came up to the street he turned to the right, expecting to see the other car at most a few blocks away. He scanned up the street but there was no sign of the car that had picked up his quarry.

The officer, Davis, cursed and reached for his radio mike before he paused. His chase had not been cleared by dispatch and it would put another write up in his jacket. He really wanted to know who interfered with his business but could not chance someone finding out what he had been doing.

Finally he decided how to word his query he keyed the call button, "Dispatch, 701 respond."

"Copy 701, go ahead," the dispatch's static-laced voice came over the receiver.

"Query, who's riding 643 tonight?"

There was a long pause on the radio as the dispatcher checked the rolls, "701, there is no unit 643 listed."

Davis furrowed his brow before he called back, "Disregard dispatch. I must have read wrong."

"Affirmative 701. Respond to alarm call at..."

Davis noted the address and made his way to the call. The whole time he wondered who had been driving that car. He seethed when he thought about how close he had come to getting the brat back. He decided he'd pull the footage from his dashcam at the end of his shift and find out the unit number. Then he'd track down who had taken her and where she was hiding now.

XXXXXX

The human sat motionless in Barricade's front seat. City buildings passed by quickly as he made his way out of town. He shuddered as his sensors registered the filth covering his passenger, never mind the human itself. It was doing itself a rather large favor by not squirming. If it had and dislodged more dirt onto his interior he might have just reacted by ejecting her from the seat or squishing her. Squishing, however, was messy, something he wanted to avoid.

The tall buildings and shops gave way to single family homes and then eventually to star lit highway. An hour passed before either entity spoke, and Barricade's sensors had remained tightly trained on the girl the entire time though his holoform's eyes stared straight ahead at the road.

The girl trembled slightly, her heart still raced and she felt very trapped. Barricade watched her closely and waited for her to crack like he expected. She was no warrior, she wouldn't last long. When one hour stretched into two he began looking for a place to stop out of sight. All the while she sat on his imitation leather, clutching onto her bag with white knuckles.

A campground closed for the season provided the privacy he was seeking. He pulled into a spot well-surrounded by trees and let his engine shut off. With darkness all around them he waited, his dashboard lights the only thing illuminating the frightened girl's expression. With the patience born of a natural hunter Barricade let the minutes tick by, watching and waiting. Her eye's betrayed her first as they darted to his holoform.

"My research of your information network shows that it is customary to say 'thank you' when someone helps you," the deep voice vibrated through the car. The girl flinched away from the driver and huddled near the passenger door.

"Th-thank you for your help, sir," the voice that replied was tiny and scared. It sent a thrill through Barricade's form and for a moment he could just imagine her squeal and scream as he crushed her in a servo or under a pede.

They sat in silence again as Barricade's engine ticked as it cooled. The girl looked ready to run the second the opportunity presented itself. Barricade, for his part, was unconcerned with that. He would hunt her down again if he had to, though there was a certain satisfaction in knowing that he had caught her and he now physically held her.

"Are you going to kill me now?" the girl finally asked, breaking the silence.

Barricade flung his passenger door open then, toppling the girl to the damp ground. She scuttled backwards away from him with her eyes wide. As she watched Barricade let his driver fade from view. Seeing the man disappear the girl squeaked and turned to run.

"Don't try it, fleshling. You know I will find you." The voice was quiet but commanding and the girl froze where she was before slowly turning back to face the car. Her full attention was on the car as panels started to slide and the body of the car folded in on itself as two legs appeared. Two arms followed quickly as did a head with four red eyes that bored into her own. Before her stood a black-and-white giant robot.

The girl gasped and took a step back. The robot moved so fast she didn't even see it coming. The giant hand, almost as big as her body, roughly rolled her to the ground and slammed down by her head as it yelled at her.

"I said no running!" The girl whimpered and covered her head with her arms though they offered meager protection.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she sobbed desperately.

Barricade growled as he narrowed his optics at the human who cowered on the ground. It was pathetic and cowardly, prostrated there as it awaited his judgment. He had pondered through the years what use such a species could be. The girl continued to shake on the ground, trembled in fear-induced hysteria. As he stared at its small form Barricade had his answer for this human's use. He stood back up to his full height and glared down at the girl.

"Get up, human. You need to remove the filth from yourself. There are washracks ten meters down this road, you have fifteen clicks to get it done and get back here." The girl stared up at him, not believing what she heard. "Move! Do not make me come look for you or I will do more than pursue you."

Without another thought the girl sprinted to the only building she could see. She stripped down in seconds and stepped under a cold spray of water. She cried as she scrubbed weeks' worth of sweat and grime from her body. With no soap or shampoo of her own she had to make due with the remnants in the dispenser on the side of the shower.

In less than ten minutes she was as clean as she had been in weeks. She dried with the paper towels that hung by the sink and was dressed in her only other set of clothes. She stepped out of the washroom as Barricade pulled up, his door open and message clear. The girl slid into the seat and the belt snaked around her and snicked into place. She didn't know what was going to happen but knew she wouldn't have much of a choice in what was to come.

Barricade got back on the highway and started east. As the miles rolled by he began to relax, the pressure on his passenger seat filled a void he had refused to acknowledge in the past months. He noted the girl's heart had slowed a bit and some of the tension had left her muscles.

"Where are we going?" the girl asked almost drowsily. She didn't know where to look as Barricade had not engaged his holoform so she focused out the windshield. The adrenaline from before had almost run out and she did not have the energy left to feel afraid.

"New York," Barricade's reply was gruff and instant. He thought nothing of answering her question. There was nothing she could do about it anyway. "I have a use for your there."

"Oh," the girl stared out ahead silent for a moment. "My name is Nina."

"I did not request your designation, human," Barricade snarled at her. Truly, he didn't want it. She was little more than a drone to him now, to be used then discarded. They had no use for designations therefore neither did she.

"Sorry," she, Nina, cringed back into the seat. "I, I just thought you would want to know. It's a long way to New York."

Barricade huffed, "Not that long." At the human's silence he thought briefly on the logistics of transporting an unwilling human across the continent and decided to try a different tactic. It would be a complete reversal of his previous behavior with her but it would be better than to keep the creature chained to him. "I am designated Barricade. You, human designated Nina, now belong to me."

Nina gulped but nodded. She remembered being told it would be best to obey for now and watch for an escape. The robot might lower its guard later, closer to somewhere she could get help. Eventually the steady thrum of Barricade's engine and his tires on the pavement lulled her into an uneasy doze.

With sensors turned to the human in his seat Barricade knew when she finally drifted off. As her breathing slowed and deepened he picked up his speed. His bulk roared down the highway, posted speed limit ignored. If the fleshy enforcers even registered him on their primitive detectors they wouldn't have a chance of catching him.

Nina sighed and shifted which caused Barricade to shift an optical sensor to his interior. The girl remained in recharge and quiet, not at all like the frightened little glitch mouse he had played with earlier. Still he had caught his prey and no one would miss her. Nobody missing her would mean no Autobots on his aft which would be nice too.

Better still he finally had a plan to get his partner back and the little squishy femme was going to help him do it. He rolled down the pavement and thought of his latest acquisition, 'I always get what's mine.'


End file.
